Brett Gardner and Matt Holliday homered and Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka won his fifth consecutive start as the New York Yankees on Monday shook off a long game and a short night’s sleep, beating Cincinnati 10-4 in Major League Baseball for their sixth victory in a row.
The Yankees have the best record at 21-9 and are 12 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2015 season.
Their biggest challenge was overcoming the fatigue from an 18-inning, 5-4 win at Wrigley Field early on Monday. The Yankees did not land in the Cincinnati area until 5:08am, and the sun was up when some of them finally fell asleep.
Tanaka (5-1) gave them what they needed after their all-nighter, going seven innings on 112 pitches to rest the bullpen. He allowed four runs — Joey Votto drove in three with a single and a homer — while ending the Reds’ five-game winning streak.
ORIOLES 6, NATIONALS 4
In Baltimore, Maryland, Trey Mancini capped a three-homer binge in the first inning against Gio Gonzalez as Baltimore beat Washington for their season-high fifth straight victory.
Kevin Gausman (2-3) limited baseball’s most potent offense to two runs over seven innings. He retired the first 10 batters and struck out eight in his longest outing of the year.
Joey Rickard hit a leadoff homer and Mark Trumbo added a solo shot before Mancini connected with a runner to make it 4-0.
Caleb Joseph had a career high-tying four hits for the Orioles. Baltimore (21-10) own the second-best record in the majors behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees.
Bryce Harper homered and drove in two runs for the Nationals.
Gonzalez (3-1) came in with a National League-leading 1.64 ERA for the team with the best record in the NL.
In other results, it was:
‧ Blue Jays 4, Indians 2
‧ Royals 7, Rays 3
‧ Mets 4, Giants 3
‧ Cardinals 9, Marlins 4
‧ Athletics 3, Angels 2, 11 innings
‧ Padres 5, Rangers 1
‧ Dodgers 12, Pirates 1
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